But time for them was fleeting. Tomorrow night was her birthday ball. She was supposed to choose a lover, a protector, a man she would cleave to until one or the other of them grew bored with the affair. It was the sort of life her aunt had enjoyed, a life that offered a kind of freedom that few Englishwomen were granted.
But thinking of sharing a life, however briefly, with Andrew or Jonathan or Oliver Wingate… she couldn't even imagine it. After painful hours of deliberation, she had decided not to choose anyone at all, to somehow make a life of her own without the sheltering presence of a man. It was a decision that didn't come lightly.
In truth, she never would have made the choice if it hadn't been for Caleb. He had changed her in some way. Or perhaps he had merely shown her the person she had always been, deep inside.
It was a difficult decision. She owed her aunt and she wanted to make her happy. But in the weeks he had been there, Caleb had made her see that she also owed herself. She couldn't become some man's plaything, not merely to please her aunt. She would make a different sort of choice, one that took far more courage. She would leave her aunt's protective circle of friends and go out on her own. She had money. She could do anything she wanted. Somehow she would make it up to her aunt.
Still, in the quiet of the room, she found herself thinking of Caleb, wondering what it might be like if Caleb became her protector.
Lee sighed into the silence of her bedchamber. If only he weren't leaving. But in truth, even if she agreed to become his mistress, it wouldn't be for long. Soon he would return to Spain, and the risk of a broken heart would only increase if she spent more time with him.
The quandary spun round and round in her head as she stood at the window, staring down into the garden. She sighed and started to turn away, hoping sleep would ease her turbulent thoughts, but a movement below caught her eye. A slight, cloaked figure stole from the back of the house, slipping silently along the path through the shrubbery. One of the maids, perhaps, or one of the female guests.
Lee watched the woman make her way to the rear of the garden and escape through the wooden gate. Why would someone be leaving the house at this late hour? Why would they be stealing away like a thief in the night?
Unless…
In an instant, she made her decision.
Dragging her night rail over her head, Lee raced to the armoire and pulled on her breeches, shirt, and boots. In minutes she was dressed and flying out the door, trying to be quiet as she hurried along the hall and down the servants' stairs. It didn't take long to reach the gate at the rear of the garden. She made it just in time to see the slender, cloaked figure disappear among the trees along the path leading into the village.
Lee hurried after her. God's breath, she wished Caleb were here, but as far as she knew he hadn't returned from wherever he had gone off to, and she had no idea when he might reappear.
The path was well worn, the dirt track flattened from years of use, but it wound through the trees, making it difficult to keep her quarry in sight. She could hear the woman's footfalls on the path up ahead and the sound of her cloak brushing against shrubs and branches along the trail. The leaves were wet with dew and the dampness soaked into Lee's breeches as she hurried along. Up ahead, the woman raced on.
Lee tried to catch a glimpse of her face, but it was hidden beneath the hood of her cloak. She worried that it was Jeannie, but something about the woman didn't seem quite right. Lee's heart pounded. Around her, the night air felt heavy and still and patches of mist hung over the earth. Crickets stopped their chirping as the woman ran past, and in the faint light cast by a fingernail moon, Lee could see narrow, feminine footprints pressed into the ground on the path in front of her.
The woman turned off the trail and Lee almost lost her. Then she realized the cloaked figure was heading for the Red Boar Inn. It loomed ahead, windows glowing with lamplight, moonlight glinting on the tiles of its gray slate roof. The woman didn't go inside, but rounded the building to the rear and disappeared. Lee hurried after her, stopping when she reached the tavern, plastering herself against the rough stone wall, then carefully peeking around the corner of the building.
There was a stairway behind the inn, partially hidden by ivy. She caught a quick glimpse of the woman's face as she climbed the stairs, lifted the latch on a heavy wooden door, and vanished into a room on the second floor.
It was one of the upstairs chambermaids. A woman named Marie LeCroix.
Marie had come to Parklands last year in search of employment. She was an exceptionally pretty young woman in her late twenties, with wavy dark brown hair, hazel eyes, and remarkable cheekbones. A number of the male guests had made offers for her time, but Marie had shied away from them. She was friendly to the men, but mostly she kept to herself.
At least that's what Lee had believed.
Now she wondered which of the men the woman was here to meet… and why.
Uncertain exactly what she should do, Lee remained in the shadows, waiting to see if she could discover whom Marie had come to meet. Careful to stay out of sight, she pressed herself against cold gray stone and fastened her gaze on the room upstairs.
Caleb could scarcely believe it. On a black horse named Solomon that was his own mount, he was returning from London, riding past the village toward the lane leading to Parklands, almost to the Red Boar Inn when he spotted a figure running along the path that led from the village to the mansion.
Dammit to bloody hell, he knew who it was, knew there was never a lad who could fill out a pair of men's breeches nearly so well, knew that long red braid and exactly how silky it felt.
What the devil she was doing out here in the middle of the night confounded him completely.
Unless…
His stomach muscles contracted. Sweet God, surely he hadn't been wrong. Surely Lee wasn't the traitor. As much as his brain cautioned him it just might be so, deep down he didn't believe it. As he watched her press herself into the shadows against the wall, his certainty grew.
Lee wasn't a traitor.
Instead, there was every chance she was out here trying to catch one.
The thought fired his temper. The interfering little baggage was sticking her nose into army business again and putting herself in danger. When he got her back to the house, he was going to wring her pretty little neck!
Tying his horse to a tree some distance away, careful to stay hidden in the shadows, Caleb started walking toward the small figure hiding in the darkness behind the inn.
From her place against the wall next to the stairwell, Lee could hear the creak of footsteps on the wooden floor in the room upstairs. If she thought she could see inside, she would sneak up the stairs and peek in, but the shutters were closed and only a sliver of light seeped out from within.
Lee rubbed her hands together. It was damp and cold and she hadn't had time to retrieve a cloak or gloves. Now it seemed as if the woman had been in the room forever. Lee shivered, tried to think warm thoughts and concentrate on discovering the man who might be trysting with Marie. If the fellow was a guest at Parklands, it didn't make sense. A visitor's privacy was ensured. If the woman wanted to spend time with one of the men, the two of them wouldn't have been interrupted.
Still, there were men in the village, wealthy squires, sons of wealthy squires. Lee figured she was probably wasting her time, that the maid was simply meeting one of them.
She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered, told herself that she should just turn round and go home. But what if Marie were meeting a traitor? What if she were the woman passing secrets to the French?
"Out for a midnight stroll?"
She jumped six inches at the words whispered into her ear. "Caleb! Good heavens, you scared me half to death!"
"If you are lucky, sweeting, that is all I will do. If you are here for the reason I think you are, I ought to put you over my knee."